Obsession

You could easily mistake newcomer writer-director Curry Barker’s Obsession for a romcom. At least, for the first 20 minutes. Aside from the foreboding presence of a dead cat, it feels light, jaunty, quirky and fun, just another harmless tale of an imperfect twentysomething dude (Michael Johnstone’s Bear) who’s desperately in love with a girl in his social circle (Inde Navarrette’s Nikki), despite her firmly friend-zoning him. However, it all goes a bit monkey’s paw when Bear unboxes an apparent novelty gift called a ‘One-Wish Willow’ and wishes that Nikki would love him ‘more than anything else in the fucking world’. 

The resulting descent into passion-fuelled psycho-horror goes far, far beyond the bunny-boiling antics of Fatal Attraction. It is a love story in the nastiest possible way. With a pitch-black sense of humour and evident nourishment from the films of Ari Aster and Zach Cregger, Barker does not hold back in presenting the disturbing, distressing consequences of Bear’s ill-conceived romantic dream. For some viewers, this all-in satirical horror may punch buttons in unwelcome ways, as it takes in issues of coercion, consent and domestic abuse. 

That isn’t to say the film is irresponsible or exploitative. Once she’s under the One-Wish Willow’s dark spell, Nikki is both victim and villain. Barker ensures we never forget the balance here, especially as Bear’s efforts to end her torment are delayed by his problematic receptiveness to her amplified attentions. He is seduced (mainly by his own reflected desires), while she is reduced. 

It’s a love story – in the nastiest possible way

Like Pazuzu in The Exorcist, Bear’s suddenly requited love contorts and corrupts Nikki to the furthest extent of self-abasement, and Natalie Portman-esque newcomer Navarrette delivers a bold, impressive, disquieting turn. It’s a shame, then, that her director feels the need to throw in some visual horror clichés (primarily a bit of jerky backwards walking) to needlessly edge-up her performance. Barker’s direction is more effective when he’s ramping up the dread than when he’s delivering jump scares or throwing in jokey asides. There’s also the strong sense that everything is happening in a narrative bubble, separated from the broader reach of society and law enforcement. 

Perhaps it isn’t such a terrible thing to remind us that this is, essentially, just a dark exercise in genre: a romcom gone horribly, upsettingly wrong. In this sense – and we suspect Barker would take this as a huge compliment – Obsession is the worst date movie imaginable. 

In cinemas worldwide May 15.